Section One: Punctuation Practice
Task One
Rewrite the following sentences, putting commas in the place where you think they should be.
1. Slow children crossing.
2. Look at that huge hot dog!
3. Go get him doctors!
4. After we left Grandma Dad and I went to the cinema.
5. James walked on his head a little higher than usual.
6. What is this thing called honey?
7. The student said the teacher is crazy.
Now, try to alter the meaning of the sentences, by rewriting them and putting commas in different places.
Choose one sentence and explain how moving the comma has changed the meaning of the sentence.
Task Two
a) Copy these sentences into your books, putting speech marks in the correct place:
Example: Are you coming to tuck? asked John. “Are you coming to tuck?” asked John.
1. Beckham is a great free-kick taker, said Joe.
2. No he isn’t, argued Pete.
3. Joe replied, but he kept us in the World Cup, he’s brilliant.
4. Well, he’s not as good as Lampard, said Pete
5. You’re talking rubbish! Joe shouted back.
b) Sometimes, what one person says in one go is broken up by narrative (story) …
Example: Well, I had no idea you felt like that!
said Clare,
“Well,” said Clare, “I had no idea you felt like that!”
Now try adding speech marks in these sentences … be careful!
1. Hello, said Andy, I haven’t seen you about in ages.
2. No, replied Nicky, I’ve just got back from holiday.
3. Where did you go? Andy asked. Was it sunny?
4. I went skiing with the school, Nicky grinned. It was fantastic but really cold.
5. I’ve always wanted to go. Was it difficult staying on the skis?
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Task Three
Remember!
There are two types of apostrophe…
Rewrite the following sentences, putting apostrophes in the correct places.
1) My best friends sister is called Jodie.
2) I havent done my homework.
3) Mrs Williams English lessons are the best.
4) If they go down the shops theyll miss the start of the football.
5) Frank Lampards goal this weekend was brilliant.
6) There werent any eggs left after Jamie dropped the box.
7) “Youre my best friend,” said Hasib.
8) Michelle shouldve caught the half-past eight bus, but she missed it.
9) Judys car isnt very reliable, its always breaking down.
10) Im always late for school in the mornings, its my dads fault.
11) Weve won lots of cups this year; were Worcestershires best school.
12) There arent many cars Id drive but I like Mazdas, like Miss Smiths.
To show that something belongs to somebody:
Lucy’s coat. Jane’s cake.
To show that a letter has been missed out or that a word has been shortened:
It is = It’s
Can not = Can’t I have = I’ve
Task Four
Rewrite the following passage, putting in the correct punctuation where it is needed. See if you can spot
the spelling mistakes too!
Top Tip
Begin a new sentence for a new thought. Use full stops, capital letters and commas.
What someone says should go inside speech marks and when a new speaker begins to talk, this should be on a new line.
when we reached the circus we found it was really busy lots of people bumped into us including small woman who starting shouting get out of my way really loudly how rude replied my dad some children started shouting their parents told them off and they were hustled and bustled into the big top we went in too and were surrounded by rows and rows of people waiting expectantly for the show to begin i was escited that at last i would see what all the fuss was about
Task Five
Can you explain how to use the following pieces of punctuation to Homer Simpson?
See if you can write a sentence which explains, simply, the rules for each piece of punctuation:
1. Full stops
2. Capital Letters
3. Commas
4. Apostrophes
5. Speech Marks
6. Extension: Semi-colon
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Task SixGive a reason why each of these words begins with a capital letter.
a) Thomas Hardy / b) The Daily Mail / c) Fiat Uno
d) Queen Elizabeth / e) I / f) Wednesday
g) Doctor Shwarma / h) ‘Neighbours’ / i) Russia
j) H.M.S. Belfast / k) Manchester United / l) The White House
m) The King’s Arms Hotel / n) Islam / o) The Conservative Party
p) Globe Theatre / q) ‘James and the Giant Peach’ / r) Nescafé
Task Seven
Rewrite the following passage, putting in the correct punctuation where it is needed. See if you can spot the spelling mistakes too!
Top Tip
Begin a new sentence for a new thought or point. Use full stops, capital letters and commas. What someone says should go inside speech marks and when a new speaker begins to talk, this should be on a new line. Remember your homophone spellings…
the iron man stood up straight slowly he turned till he was looking directly at hogarth we’re sorry we trapped you and buried you shouted the little boy we promise we’ll not deceive you again follow us and you can have all the metal you want brass too aluminium too and lots of chrome follow us the iron man pushed aside the boughs and came into the lane hogarth joined the farmers slowly they drove back down the lane and slowly with all his cogs humming the iron man stepped after them they led through the villages half the people came out to stare half ran to shut themselves inside bedrooms and kitchens nobody could believe their eyes when they saw the iron man marching behind the farmers at last they came to the town and there was a great scrap-metal yard everything was there old cars by the hundred old trucks old railway engines old stoves old refrigerators old springs bedsteads bicycles girders gates pans - all the scrap iron of the region was piled up there rusting away
Task Eight
Rewrite the following passage, correcting all of the mistakes that have been made. Once you have finished, highlight the changes that you have made for your teacher by underlining them or using a highlighter.
by the timje I was 7 I knew that I was the greatest footballer The world had ever seen I kneww that I wos better than pele And maradona put together. The truth is if I wanted to I could av been bought by machester united for a million Milion poundss. But I’m rich enough Already so I dont care so there id rather be the greatest teecher the world has ever seen like Iyam’
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Task Nine
Rewrite this passage inserting 35 missing capital letters.
my cousin ella was coming from hong kong to spend christmas with us in devon. as I had never met her i was really excited. her father and mother, my uncle charles and aunt anne worked for the foreign office and they were being sent to china with british airways. ella was travelling down from london on the riviera express and we were to meet her at exeter station on the friday, the day before christmas eve. on boxing day we were going to see „cinderella‟ at the theatre royal, plymouth.
Task Ten
Full stops are used to indicate the end of a sentence. They can also be used to show initials and abbreviations.
1) Write out these abbreviations in full.a) / Capt. / b) / Rd. / c) / Hants. / d) / abbrev.
e) / Sq. / f) / anon. / g) / adj. / h) / adv.
i) / Hon. Sec. / j) / Feb. / k) / V.I.P. / l) / s.a.e.
m) / e.g. / n) / m.p.h. / o) / a.s.a.p.
Top Tip
2) What do these letters stand for?a) / B.C / b) / P.E / c) / O.B.E. / d) / G.B.
e) / M.P. / f) / H.Q. / g) / U.S.A. / h) / S.W.
i) / M.A. / j) / M.D.
Task Eleven
You might want to use a computer or somebody at home to help you do this…
Perhaps you’d like to challenge your parents or grandparents to see if they know!
Punctuation scoring is an excellent way of proof-reading your writing. It will encourage you to include as much punctuation that is needed in any piece of writing.
Have a go at punctuation scoring a piece of your work that you have completed. Then, try and re-write a paragraph of the piece, including more punctuation.
Punctuation Scores
. , “” = 1 point
() ! ? Paras „ = 5 points
: ; - / = 10 points
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Section Two: Great Grammar
Task Twelve
YOU NEED TO KNOW ….. A verb is a word for an action - ‘a doing word’.
1. In these short sentences which word is the action (the verb)?
a) Joe helped the old woman. (What did Joe do? Answer: helped)
b) A tree grew in the garden.
c) Lucy won the race.
d) The cat killed the bird.
e) Kelly likes chocolate.
f) Jack reads a great deal.
The last six verbs were all single-word verbs but sometimes a verb is made up of more than one word to show a different time (tense) like past, present or future, as in question 2.
2. Copy each sentence and underline the verbs. Part a is done for you.
a) Joe was helping the old woman.
c) A tree was growing in the garden.
e) Jack has read a great deal.
b) The cat had killed the bird.
d) Lucy will win the race.
f) Kelly used to like chocolate.
A verb can also be a state of being – part of the verb to be.
This has many forms such as: (I) am, (you, we, they) are, (he, she, it) is, (I, he, she) was,
(we, they) were, as well as will be, was being, would have been - all part of being.
3. Find the verbs in these sentences:
a) / I am hungry. / b) / The sky was blue.c) / Jane is sad. / d) / People were waiting.
e) / Ducks are funny. / f) / It was open.
4. Copy out this passage and underline the 15 verbs.
Dan awoke suddenly and wondered what had disturbed him. It was dark so he switched on the lamp. Light flooded the room for a moment before the bulb exploded and it seemed blacker than before. He heard the church click strike three. He had woken at the same time the previous night. He groped his way to the window and opened the curtains. It was there again and this time it spoke.
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Task Thirteen
YOU NEED TO KNOW ……… Remember the verb to be from the previous homework. You need to know the various forms it takes.
Present Simple Tense / Past Simple TenseI am / I was
you (s) are / you (s) were
he / she / it is / he / she / it was
we are / we were
you (pl) are / you (pl) were
they are / they were
It is surprising how many people make mistakes of agreement and say things like
1. Copy the following table and fill in the gaps.
Present / Past / FutureI walk / I walked / I will walk
She breaks / ------/ ------
------/ They wrote / ------
------/ ------/ They will be
He teaches / ------/ ------
------/ ------/ We will take
------/ It stood / ------
2. Look carefully at the Verb Table at the top of this page and choose the correct verb form in these sentences:
a) The turkeys was / were kept in a large pen.
b) I is / am / are hoping to see you soon.
c) There is / are a long row of houses.
d) Mr and Mrs Driver is living / are living at No. 1 Station Road.
e) We was / were thirty altogether in the class.
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Task Fourteen
YOU NEED TO KNOW ……..
An adverb is a word which tells us more about a verb (or sometimes about other words). There are various kinds of adverb but in these questions we shall deal with adverbs of manner, time and place.
1. In the following sentences which word tells us something about the verb by answering the
question “How?” (The verb is underlined.)a) / The elephant wandered aimlessly. / b) / The river flowed slowly.
c) / Theseus fought bravely. / d) / I want you to shout loudly.
e) / Wildly he threw his spear. / f) / Suddenly the space ship was gone.
2. The six words above are adverbs of manner. They answer the question How …? They are formed from adjectives by adding –ly.
Change these adjectives into adverbs.
bright / beautiful / immediate / direct / awkwardwarm / mean / generous / spiteful / angry
When you change the following do not forget to change the –y into –i.
(happy = happily)
sunny / crazy / stony / cosy / frosty
pretty / grubby / rocky / weedy / glossy
3. These are adverbs of time or place – they answer the question When ..? or Where…? Sort them into two lists of six.
yesterday / here / soon / often / weekly / inover / out / there / late / near / next
Task Fifteen
YOU NEED TO KNOW …….
A preposition is an important little word which shows the position of one noun or pronoun in
relation to another. Here are some words which can be used as prepositions:
to, at , before, after. since, on, off, under, beneath, above, against, until, near, with, without, of, across, for, from, over, around, by, along, between, among, opposite, below, through, beside, up, in.
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1. / Use a suitable preposition from the list above to complete each of these sentences.a) The cat sat ………. the mat. / b) The cow jumped ………. the moon.
c) Alice went ………. the looking glass. / d) E.T came ………. Outer Space.
e) Jack went ………. the hill …….. Jill. / f) 24 blackbirds were baked ………. a pie.
g) Pride comes ………. a fall. / h) Which egg fell ………. a wall?
i) The robin was a victim of ……. archery. / j) The sparrow was blamed … the murder.
k) T.Dum was similar ……. T.Dee. / l) A spider sat ………. Little Miss Muffett.
m) O.K Cindy, you can stay …… twelve. / n) You won’t get in ………. a ticket.
o) Who set the cat ………. the pigeons? / p) Sinbad sailed ………. the sea.
q) Mrs Farmer chased …… the rodents. / r) The rugged rascal ran …….. the rocks.
2. Which preposition would be most suitable to use with each of these words?